Gidday all,

Thursday morning, drove onto Tassie soil. The seas were calm and the crossing uneventful, had to give up some firewood at Melbourne that we had in the storage boxes on the truck which I forgot about, not a problem.

 

The duck in the photo? A long story. She will be our traveling companion for the trip.

Went to Forth to catch up with our friend Rod, stayed the night and he showed us how to catch whitebait from the river. Back to cooler weather tops of around 18s expected. Will go and stock up on fruit and veg and a few other things and head to the mountains to catch up with some other friends and work out our next plan of attack.

 

 

Gidday all,

Set the GPS to a spot the other side of Melbourne and set off onto the freeway. Getting to the city bypass and it said there was an accident up ahead and it had found another route, we had to go through the city. No problems, just followed the directions and came out the other side and onto the freeway again. Sometimes you just have to trust the GPS.

 

We found a campsite in a forest about 40k from where we were headed and camped up for a couple of days. Lots of bright red parrots around.

 

Headed off on Friday to catch up with our friends at Wonthaggi. Spent the weekend catching up and seeing the sights. Went over to Phillip Island and around the coast.

The weather has been up and down, sunny, hot, overcast, cold, and windy, that was only Saturday. Will hang around till Wednesday morning then go into Melbourne ready to catch the ferry that evening. Hope the seas are calm.

Gidday all,

Left Hopetoun on Sunday, came to Warracknabeal,a small town on the road south. There were some street stalls in the main street, so after fuelling up we went to investigate. Bought some indigenous herbs and some quondong cordial, both yummy. Then went to the pub grounds where they were having a slow cooked ribs cooking comp. The product produced was free to try, so we filled up on ribs of all flavours, also yummy. Had a coffee and a look around and headed off.

Ended up at Little Desert National Park just outside Dimboola, no one about so camped up for the night. In the morning went exploring some sandy tracks in the park, the one we wanted to take to continue south was closed, so back to Dimboola and on the hiway again.

Spent the day on the hiway to Ballarat, would rather be on the dirt, passed through Ballarat after stocking up on fresh veggies, which we were low on since the border. Found a camp about 40k out in a state forest.

Will get a bit closer to Melbourne and hold up for a few days, then go and see our friends till we float over to Tassie next Wednesday.

 

Gidday all,

We were going to explore the park further, but decided the weather was getting a bit hot to stay, and we only had a week left to get to Melbourne and catch up with our friends before getting on the ferry to Tassie. Woke up in the morning and it was overcast and cold, what a turnaround. Anyway, heard on the radio, a music festival was on in Patchewollock, not to far away. So headed off in that direction.

 

Nice little town, pub, shop, and well, that’s about it. A small crowd gathered around a couple singing on the main stage in the pubs grounds, camp ovens on the coals, cooking the nights meals.

 

Friendly people, and a great country atmosphere. Din made a couple of new friends and had a go at playing the banjo. Didn’t hang too long, wanted to find a quiet camp before dark.

Went down to Hopetoun, there’s a lake where you can camp, a few of other campers but nice and quiet. Sunday tomorrow, will spend the morning listening to Macca, then probably head off again towards Ballarat. There’s good phone signal here, so will post this while I can.  

 

Gidday all,

Had a relaxed weekend at Worlds End Gorge, some traffic up and down the dirt road but not to annoying. Headed off on Monday over to Loxton near the border to Victoria. Fuel and water filled up and some supplies on board we made our way east to the border and the entrance to the Murray Sunset National Park.

 

It was late afternoon when we arrived at the border so entering the park we travelled a few hundred meters and found a clearing off the road a bit and stopped for the night. Next morning, travelled about 14k to a spot called the shearing quarters, an old bunkhouse from the sheep station days, with a camp grounds. No one about so decided to stop. Found a tank full of water at the quarters so set up the shower and showered our heads off.

 

Set off in the morning on a small sandy 4wd track heading south along the S. A / Vic. Border on the Vic. Side. Down the track, came to a long, somewhat steep sand dune, stopped to let air out of the tyres and next minute two bikes came up behind and asked if we were okay. I said yes and they rounded us up and struggled up the dune. Tyres down and off up the dune, I think Ned the Winnafarrgo enjoyed showing us what he can do, took it in his stride.

 

Quite a lot of soft sand stretches and a few more sand dunes later we arrived at the Rock holes. The day was warming up so found a tree large enough to give some shade and camped up for the day.

More dunes and soft sand next day as we headed for the Pink Lakes, on the southern border of the park. Ned handled it all well. The days this week are steadily getting hotter, 35 and 36s so trying not to travel in the hottest part, the sand is a lot softer in the heat too.

 

Made it to Pink Lakes, dry salt lakes where the surface has a pink hue in places due to a species of red algae. They only have water in them in the wet season. Camp ground was deserted so we picked a prime spot

They used to harvest the salt here during the dry times and machinery and old stockpiles of salt remain, weathering on the shoreline.

          

 

Gidday all,

Arrived at Blinman, a small outback town with a pub and café, we stopped at the pub as it was lunchtime. Had a nice lunch served by a French backpacker who was working there for a couple of months.

Back to the bitumen for a bit going through the Central Flinders Ranges, didn’t hang long as it’s still school holidays and everyone has gone camping there.

Came into Hawker, a larger size town but still small. Filled up with fuel and water then found a small shop and topped up with some basic supplies. Then decided to leave the bitumen and head onto Orroroo further south, along station roads.

 

Came across our new trailer along the road. Backed up to it and then the station owner turned up and asked if we were lost, I smiled and said no, just wanted to get a photo of the dray. We had a chat and he left us to it.

 

Small town along the way has a claim to fame as having a giant red gum, 10.9m around the trunk, they say it’s 500 years old.

 

Up the road, some bush art, creative people around here.

Wanted to find a place to hold up for the weekend as the school holidays are finished this weekend and the road will probably get busy. Found a camp at Worlds End Gorge, just south of Burra, perfect. The camp area is spaced all along the creek bank, a few campers up one end so we headed to the other end. Set up camp and put the corned beef on the fire to cook.          

 

 

NANTAWARRINA

 

Drove to the turn off to Nantawarrina, you need a permit to travel through there, you self register at the border and put the fee in the box. $30 for the permit and $10 per night camping, you get the first night free with the permit.

 

 

 

Camped at the first campsite about 12k in. Lots of birds and wallabies and bobtail lizards, as well as emus with babies following along.

 

 

 

They have had some rain and sturts desert pea and numerous other wild flowers are everywhere. Beautiful country.

 

We had two days at the first campsite then moved on to a campsite 25k down the road, no one for miles. This was our last night as we had paid for three nights. On the way out in the morning we passed a dam they call orange tree dam, had some smoko and got out the yabby pot, 15 minutes later, hauled in the catch. Guess what I had for tea that night, Din had salad.

    

Gidday all,

Came off the Birdsville track at Marree and had a look around town. Stopped at the roadhouse and fuelled up. $1.90/ltr later and no water available as they have to truck it in and don’t give any away, not a problem as we had enough left to last a while. Marree, the home of the Lake Eyre Yacht Club, the boats looked a bit dusty.

 

Then on South through Lyndhurst and on to Leigh Creek, here we topped up on groceries as it’s a coal mining town of about 600 people and the little supermarket had a good selection and reasonable prices. Called into the servo to top up water and noticed an inside dual wheel had a flat. It always seems to be the inside one, you have to take both wheels off to fix it. Though with dual wheels if one goes flat you can drive on for a while with the other holding it up if you have to. Don’t know how long this one was flat for, I checked them that morning, will have to check more often I suppose. Had a spare tube so pulled over to a shady park at the servo and fixed the tyre. These Split rims are easy to work with when changing tyres thank God.

From Leigh Creek headed east to have a look at the Gammon Ranges National Park, part of the Northern Flinders Ranges. First stop Iga Warta, an aboriginal community, it has a shop and art and artefact display with info on the aboriginal history of the area. Very interesting. Then on to Nepabunna, another community who look after an area south called Nantawarrina Indigenous Protection Area, we plan to go through there on our way back south.

Found a campsite just outside the Gammon Ranges park boundary, nice spot. Into the park in the morning.

 

 

Camped at a spot called Grindles hut, used to be a sheep station before the national park existed. Old man Grindle murdered his son in law here way back then, in the morning I decided to fix the parking brake as it had stopped working. It gave me some trouble but I got it fixed, had lunch and decided to move on. Headed off to a 4wd track that leads to another camp ground, not far up the road we came across a ranger 4x4 coming the other way. The ranger asked if we had camped there the night and we said yes, she asked if we had seen a woman go jogging early this morning, but we hadn’t noticed anyone. Apparently the jogger hadn’t returned, and it was after lunch. She thanked us and kept on.

This track we took is a one way loop, it goes for about 50ks and ends up back at Grindles hut. One way because it is very narrow and there are very steep hills to climb not being able to see oncoming vehicles over the crest. About 4ks in we came across a 4x4 on the track doing repairs, he was headed the other way. We stopped and he said he was good, the front wheel was about to fall off he said, but could fix it good enough to get to help. He was going the same way as us but decided to turn around when this happened. We squeezed around him and continued. One k on another 4x4was headed toward us, so much for one way road, they stopped and we squeezed past. They wanted to know where they were. We produced a pamphlet map and showed them, they had missed a turn and were lost. We left the pamphlet with them and they thanked us and were off.

Eighteen Ks later came to Mainwater Well campsite, a good sight, the road was rough and slow going, but that’s how we like it. Magnificent views on the ridge tops and even through the rocky valleys and creek beds.

 Off again in the morning and back at Grindles a few hours later, we heard they had found the lost jogger, she had taken a wrong turn and fortunately stumbled on another campground and campers that evening some seven Ks away.Moving on, will spend Sunday and the next few days in Nantawarrina indigenous protected area on our way to the South Flinders Ranges.